Pakistan has sternly rejected the biannual White House report to the US congress, rejecting it as "unwarranted" and warned "Pakistan should not be held accountable for the failings of the coalition in Afghanistan". That some of the US Congressmen tend to further spoil the situation is all the more discouraging.
According to reports, some of them have asked President Obama to abandon Pakistan and embrace India, adding insult to injury. The biannual White House report to the US Congress on Tuesday is an admixture of exhortation to 'do more' and admission of stalemate, if not failure, in Afghanistan. Obviously, no one in Pakistan is greatly surprised over this report though it does confirm the reality of a perceptional mismatch that is bound to trouble the relationship between a Superpower and an average member of international community.
There are difficulties and irritants confronting that relationship, and in that situation Pakistan has to protect its best national interests. If its moves are finely calibrated in line with its national interests it should be accepted as a fact and reality, instead of insisting that 'Pakistan lacks a clear plan to defeat insurgents'.
Being a superpower, the United States has its global agenda and regional interests which do not necessarily coincide with Pakistan's worldview. The tendency on the part of Washington to see Pakistan through its Afghanistan prism is unrealistic and if the Obama administration is beset with doubts over its military-oriented engagement in Afghanistan it is not necessary that Islamabad should say 'good, keep it up'.
The fact on the ground in Afghanistan, grudgingly admitted in this report, is that the Afghan "Taliban remains confident of its strategy and resources, and heavy fighting is expected to resume this spring" - while Pakistan is increasingly making it clear that the US government should not treat Pakistan as part of America's Afghan policy.
The White House report finds fault with Pakistan military operations in some of the tribal areas, particularly in Mohmand and Bajaur agencies, wondering how after three attempts the Pakistan Army has not been able to tame the militants. According to the report, "What remains vexing is the lack of any indication of 'hold' and 'build' planning or staging efforts to complement ongoing operations".
That perception has not been allowed to go unchallenged. Pakistan military's spokesman Major General Athar Abbas has rejected the report 'for having misinterpreted the situation on the ground, particularly the Mohmand operation' saying that the latest phase of military operation is taking place in areas that had been left out in previous campaigns.
Fighting militants in these areas is an 'uphill task and therefore, was progressing slowly,' he added. How difficult it's to win a war of one's choice in the tribal regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan the American strategists would do well by studying the inability of the British colonialists to win against the tribal people over two centuries, and the Moscow rulers who were beaten back and made to flee by the Afghan Mujahideen. No wonder, the report admits the coalition's failure to put on ground the Afghan National Security Forces, given the fact of rampant absenteeism and attrition.
By making reports of the kind the White House has done, it is making it increasingly difficult for the government of Pakistan to justify its co-operation with the United States and its coalition in Afghanistan. Of late, especially since the release of CIA contractor Raymond Davis and the lethal drone strike on civilians on the following day, the people of Pakistan find no reason to remain committed to this kind of unilateral co-operation.
The said report fails to heed President Zardari's warning that 'all actions which created mistrust needed to be reviewed' to take stock of the situation. Al Qaeda is a global phenomenon and to believe that militants need remote hills to train in the art of war and there is no other method of promoting terrorism, is nothing but denial of the fact that in today's world, terrorists can employ a thousand other techniques in pursuance of their objectives.
Military action alone is just not enough to squarely meet the challenge of international terrorism. But conditions that can impede the growth of militancy, extremism and terrorism can be obtained by looking deeper into the root causes that stir hostility and invite volunteers for suicide missions. Certainly, the stepped up strikes by the CIA drones have turned the tables of pro-military options in Pakistan. The White House biannual assessment report, we believe, could be less conjectural and more objective.